Why I'm modeling at Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School

I've been performing as Kitty LaRue with the local Caburlesque group Foxy Veronica's Peach Pies for about a year and a half now. Yes, Caburlesque is a made-up word combining cabaret and burlesque.

We were formed as the recent resurgence of burlesque was taking off and joined the ranks of the Madison cabaret and burlesque performers who were already well established, including the Mad Cabaret and Cherry Pop Burlesque. Maybe it's because we all are nice people, or that our shows are all different enough, but it's been extremely pleasant to run into various members of groups around town and not feel snubbed, looked down on or unwelcome. In a genre where groups tend to define themselves as being "The one! The only! The best!" we've all seemed to find our niches.

I definitely want to be active in keeping things this way -- attending shows, networking, all that fun stuff. Enter Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, in which artists and wannabes sketch live models in an atmosphere of drinking and debauchery. Months ago my best friend and fellow Peach Pie, Betty Wantsme, alerted me to the fact there was a new event taking place at one of our favorite haunts, the High Noon Saloon.

With a tagline like "Drinking, Drawing, and Debauchery," we were pretty much already there, but finding out it was being made possible by the lovely Olive Talique of Cherry Pop Burlesque was the icing on the cake. We knew Olive just a bit from brief run-ins at shows, and we wanted to be there to support her. We also figured: How cool would it be to have members of one group happily hanging out at events put on by another group? And I suppose the exhibitionist in us did rear its head as we giggled, "Ooh! Ooh! Maybe one day we could be models!" It was bound to happen at some point.

We attended the very first Madison Sketchy's and instantly fell in love. Olive is sassy and hilarious and goofy, basically a girl after our own heart. Fun music was playing, and real artists were making real art! We got a shout-out from the stage from Olive, and one-dollar PBR bottles sealed the deal.

As neither of us are terrific artists, we spent most of that first event coloring the awesome posters by Glenn Watson, talking about how we coveted model Randi O'Toole's costumes and butt, and surrounding ourselves in a fortress of empty PBR bottles. We knew almost immediately we'd be coming back.

Fast forward, and we've attended every Dr. Sketchy's except two, and one was the weekend I got married. And finally, our dream is a reality... we are modeling for the September 23 event, appropriately titled "Back to School." As if we don't make asses of ourselves on stage enough with the Peach Pies, we've agreed to bring the goofiness to this next round of drawing, drinking, and debauchery.